Prospective prediction and control of image properties in model-based material decomposition for spectral CT

Model-based material decomposition (MBMD) directly estimates the material densities from the spectral CT data and has found opportunities for dose reduction via physical and statistical modeling and advanced regularization. However, image properties of material basis volumes can be complex. For example, spatial resolution, noise, and cross-talk can depend on acquisition parameters, regularization, patient size, and anatomical target. In this work, we propose a set of prospective prediction tools for the generalized local impulse response (LIR) that characterizes both in-basis spatial resolution and cross-basis response, as well as noise correlation. The accuracy of noise predictor was validated in a simulation study, comparing predicted and measured in- and cross-basis noise correlations. Employing these predictors, we composed a specialized regularization for cross-talk reduction and showed that such prediction tools are promising for task-based optimization in spectral CT applications.